


.02 Talk

by unkemptseeker



Series: We lived a life of: Almost [2]
Category: Longmire (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, I'm not tagging this Jady but it's implied because that's my business, One Shot, canon shitty relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24707671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unkemptseeker/pseuds/unkemptseeker
Summary: yup. another doc, drug out from 2018's dusty claws.
Series: We lived a life of: Almost [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786264
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	.02 Talk

**Author's Note:**

> no beta on any of these lil' baby chunks btw soooo let me live ok

She tucks her blouse into her pencil skirt for the thousandth time and stares at herself in the mirror of the private bathroom attached to her office. 

4 years of a chaotic life has settled here and there. A few laugh lines around her eyes, --she shares their color with her one living parent--, a few new permanent wrinkles in her forehead, caused by hours of reading and desperate research under various light sources. Not everything is a physical feature though, and the little voice that says she’ll never prove she’s more than her last name gets banished the second it starts up. 

_Get to together_ , she tells herself. Leaning closer to the mirror Cady re-applies her lipstick even though it's completely unnecessary and nods at herself.

Her heels click on the exposed 100 year old floor and the receptionist jumps out her skin, sending the chair she’s in flying backwards to scramble after her. 

“All of the files were transferred and Dave is sorting them. We have about one hundred and twenty five applications and Julie is going to tackle half of them, Carrie’s doing the other half.” 

Realistically, she should _really_ be listening, but instead Cady raises a hand and mutters, “Just a second,” before stepping outside. 

It never fails to amaze her that Durant always looks the same. She’s comforted by the sight of the town square, the familiar shops and buildings, minus the twinge of _something_ she feels when her eyes glide over the sheriff's office. A vibrating buzz makes her jump and she turns her phone over, admiring the calendar alert on her screen. 

Cady looks up, one last check that the building still says, ‘Longmire and Associates’, and heads back inside. 

Marie is sitting at her desk again and nothing about her screams, ‘I’m about to panic babble,’ so Cady flips the door sign from closed to open before tapping on the desk. “I’ll be in my office,” she says over her shoulder.

  


-x x x-

  


Lunchtime has come and gone and Cady’s salad sits, wilting on the corner of her desk. She’s lucky it hasn’t fallen off yet but it’s the only space available because the rest of the surface is covered in files, books, scribbled on scrap paper and two to-go cups of half drank coffee. 

She sits slumped in her chair, a pen dangling from her fingers, her mind sorting through the mess. _She needs to make an excel document of previous employees, she needs to call the former Sheridan branch to talk to the interns, she needs_ \--. 

The loud sound of someone clearing their throat makes her jump and her hand lunges for the desk crushing papers over the edge while she catches her breath. Then, she makes the mistake of looking up, towards the source of the sound.

“You’re...you…” she stops, just stops, because he’s always made her brain turn in on itself like this. _You are not crying off this sixty four dollar a bottle foundation_ , she tells herself as she stands, one hand still firm on the desk. 

He frowns, and stays in the doorway, like she’s scared.

She’s not scared, she wants to say, just stunned.

“I’m sorry.” Jacob offers plainly. “I really didn’t mean to startle you, I knocked...” he pulls a hand out to his pocket to gesture to her door. “I’ve been out a few weeks, but I just got back into town a few days ago.” 

Cady nods, and it feels less like her heart is trying to leave her body via her throat and her blood isn’t pumping quite as furiously anymore. “I’m glad they finally released you,” she says, digging her toes into the soles of her high heels. “I was already working on my next parole speech, but I guess they decided they didn’t want to be forced to hear me speak for 2 hours.” 

He grins, and she feels like someone just pointed out that the sky is really purple. It strikes her, as she’s having a bit of an existential crisis, that if she hadn’t learned over the last four years that Jacob and Mathias were 2nd cousins, she’d be theorizing about it now. 

The air in the room seems settled somehow, and Cady pushes herself off the desk and pulls at the two chairs across from her desk. “Come sit, please,” she says as she lowers herself into the seat facing the doorway.

  


-x x x-

  


Jacob left three hours ago, and she’s been waiting ever since then. It goes without saying that her dad is probably working, but the gossip mill in Durant is still like playing telephone through tin cans and she’s truly surprised he hasn’t barged into her office and accused her of something nefarious. 

Cady closes her eyes, breathing in and out slowly. _It doesn’t matter what he says, or does, or thinks. You don’t owe him, you are your own person and if he starts being an unreasonable ass, you can just walk away_ , she thinks. 

Her eyes pop open, just as her court researcher, Julie, knocks on the door frame. “Don’t stay all night boss.” 

Cady smiles tiredly, “I’m heading out soon too,” she promises.

She’s got on a navy colored wool floor length coat on, but the spring chill still seeps under her silk blouse and no amount of pulling the collar is going to give her exposed inches of skin a break so she shivers, keys in hand. 

Her car is parked across the square like always and she follows the shadows through the circular sidewalks, slowing when she sees a familiar figure waiting. She is tired. She’s so damn tired and she just wants a glass of wine, a bubble bath, and to read something completely frivolous. There’s no way to leave without talking though, so she sighs to herself and presses the unlock button on her key fob, smiling to herself when Walt jumps at the sudden noise and lights. 

“What can I do for you dad?” she asks, opening the passenger door and dumping her over sized tote on the seat. 

He gives her a weak shrug, and Cady rolls her eyes. She’s still standing in the open door and she taps the ring on her index finger against the metal of the roof impatiently. 

“If you’re going to lie to me, or wait for me to read your mind, we might as well stop talking right now,” she says, watching her breath in the cold air. 

He looks pained, and weirdly concerned, like he’s waiting to get ambushed, and Cady narrows her eyes. “Goodnight Dad,” she says, angling her body to climb into the car. She’s climbing over the console when she hears


End file.
